Kathleen Battle & Jean-Pierre Rampal in Concert

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Bohuslav (Jan) Martinu, Michael (Dewar) Head, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Henry R(owley) Bishop, Fernando J Obradors, George Frideric Handel, Albert (Charles Paul Marie) Roussel, Camille Saint-Saëns, Henry Purcell

Label: Classical

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 77

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: SK53106

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Pensieri notturni di Filli, 'Nel dolce dell'oblio' George Frideric Handel, Composer
Anthony Newman, Harpsichord
George Frideric Handel, Composer
Jean-Pierre Rampal, Flute
Kathleen Battle, Soprano
Myron Lutzke, Cello
(L')Allegro, il penseroso ed il moderato, Movement: Come, rather, Goddess George Frideric Handel, Composer
Anthony Newman, Harpsichord
George Frideric Handel, Composer
Jean-Pierre Rampal, Flute
Kathleen Battle, Soprano
Myron Lutzke, Cello
If music be the food of love Henry Purcell, Composer
Anthony Newman, Harpsichord
Henry Purcell, Composer
Kathleen Battle, Soprano
Myron Lutzke, Cello
What can we poor females do Henry Purcell, Composer
Anthony Newman, Harpsichord
Henry Purcell, Composer
Kathleen Battle, Soprano
Myron Lutzke, Cello
Oedipus, Movement: Music for a while (song) Henry Purcell, Composer
Anthony Newman, Harpsichord
Henry Purcell, Composer
Kathleen Battle, Soprano
Myron Lutzke, Cello
Hippolyte et Aricie, Movement: Rossignols amoureux Jean-Philippe Rameau, Composer
Anthony Newman, Harpsichord
Jean-Philippe Rameau, Composer
Jean-Pierre Rampal, Flute
Kathleen Battle, Soprano
Myron Lutzke, Cello
(Une) Flûte invisible Camille Saint-Saëns, Composer
Camille Saint-Saëns, Composer
Jean-Pierre Rampal, Flute
Kathleen Battle, Soprano
Margo Garrett, Piano
(2) Poèmes de Ronsard Albert (Charles Paul Marie) Roussel, Composer
Albert (Charles Paul Marie) Roussel, Composer
Jean-Pierre Rampal, Flute
Kathleen Battle, Soprano
Canciones clásicas españolas, Movement: Al amor Fernando J Obradors, Composer
Fernando J Obradors, Composer
Kathleen Battle, Soprano
Margo Garrett, Piano
Canciones clásicas españolas, Movement: Del cabello más sutil Fernando J Obradors, Composer
Fernando J Obradors, Composer
Kathleen Battle, Soprano
Margo Garrett, Piano
Canciones clásicas españolas, Movement: La mi sola Laureola Fernando J Obradors, Composer
Fernando J Obradors, Composer
Kathleen Battle, Soprano
Margo Garrett, Piano
Chiquitita la novia Fernando J Obradors, Composer
Fernando J Obradors, Composer
Kathleen Battle, Soprano
Margo Garrett, Piano
Sonata for Flute and Piano Bohuslav (Jan) Martinu, Composer
Bohuslav (Jan) Martinu, Composer
Jean-Pierre Rampal, Flute
John Steele Ritter, Piano
Bird-song Michael (Dewar) Head, Composer
Jean-Pierre Rampal, Flute
Kathleen Battle, Soprano
Margo Garrett, Piano
Michael (Dewar) Head, Composer
Lo, here the gentle lark Henry R(owley) Bishop, Composer
Henry R(owley) Bishop, Composer
Jean-Pierre Rampal, Flute
Kathleen Battle, Soprano
Margo Garrett, Piano
'With flute obbligato': it used to be a regular feature of concerts and recordings by the great madames of old. If their programmes had been as enterprising as this one, they would not have provoked so readily, if unwittingly, the odious term 'canary-fancier'. Yet at the same time they would have needed some greater variety of tone, something in addition to the perpetual sweetness of expression than we hear in Kathleen Battle. The bell-like purity of her voice is delightful in itself, and satisfies up to a point; but that is reached, I would say, by the end of two or three songs. Her fluency and evenness, her free production of perfectly steady tone, are all admirable and none too common in the world today (but then, she is generally acknowledged to be one of the leading singers in that world). She is also highly skilled in making effective use of her naturally limited power, as, for instance, when she fills out the tone towards the end of ''Sweet Bird'' or repeats the words ''can you be'' in ''There's not a swain''. The enervated droop of some high sopranos is not for her, and she can turn from mere pleasantness to gaiety, as in some of the Spanish songs. But generally, the emotional or expressive range is small, the beauty essentially that of an exceptional prettiness.
Among the songs, Roussel's settings of Ronsard for voice and flute without accompaniment make a strong impression: fine two-part writing and perfect for the occasion. Several others are remarkably happy 'finds', including the Bird-song of Michael Head. But musical interest centres on Martinu's Flute Sonata, a marvellous work and not presently available in the catalogues otherwise. Written in a week at Cape Cod in 1945, it has inexhaustible vitality: apparently simple (but never commonplace), and sometimes dazzlingly intricate and diverse in form and reference. I was wondering whether this, and its superb performance by Jean-Pierre Rampal and John Steele Ritter, would elicit the same fortissimo bravos that break in even at the most exquisite pianissimo ending of the songs. And indeed it does, which I suppose must be to the audience's credit; but when such extremes of rapture greet everything in the programme one tends to find that as they increase in noise they diminish in credibility.'

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